Parts or portions of something delivered or paid in separate parts over time, rather than all at once.
From Old French 'installer' (to put in place), possibly from Latin 'in-' (in) plus 'stallum' (stall or standing place). The '-ment' suffix indicates a result or action. It evolved to mean partial payments or chapters released over time.
Before streaming showed TV episodes one at a time, 'installments' originally meant stories published one chapter per week in newspapers! Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' was actually sold as a serial in installments—people had to wait each week to find out what happened next.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.